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Setup Security Agent

AWSOfficialPublished by AWS

  • Skill
  • Workflow
  • Cloud and DevOps
  • Apache-2.0
  • No issues found

From the author

Configure AWS Security Agent for the current workspace — provision or reuse an agent space, IAM service role, and S3 bucket. Use when the user asks to "set up security agent", "configure security scanner", "is security agent configured", or on first-time use before any scan or pentest.
— the description by AWS

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

The setup-security-agent skill streamlines the initialization of the AWS environment needed for security operations. It ensures that an agent space, an IAM service role with appropriate trust policies, and a dedicated S3 bucket are correctly provisioned and linked. By following a convention-based approach, it minimizes configuration drift while enforcing security best practices, such as bucket ownership verification and public access blocks. The skill is designed to be idempotent and can be triggered automatically by other security-related skills if the workspace environment is not yet initialized.

What it does

  • Provisions or reuses an AWS agent space for security operations.
  • Creates or updates the required IAM service role with necessary trust and permission policies.
  • Sets up a dedicated S3 bucket for scan data with public access blocked and lifecycle rules enabled.
  • Verifies bucket ownership to prevent potential bucket-squatting attacks.
  • Registers resources within the agent space for integrated operation.
  • Maintains local workspace state in a hidden directory to track configuration.

When to use it

  • When initializing a new workspace for security scanning or pentesting.
  • When the security agent configuration is missing or needs to be verified.
  • As a prerequisite step before running any automated security scan or pentest job.
  • When you need to ensure your AWS environment meets the security requirements for the agent.

Advantages

  • Enforces security-first defaults like bucket ownership checks and public access restrictions.
  • Reduces manual configuration effort through convention-based resource naming.
  • Ensures idempotency, allowing for safe re-runs without duplicating resources.
  • Provides clear error handling for common cloud permission or naming conflicts.

Usage examples

“Set up security agent”
The agent will check for existing resources, prompt you to select an agent space if multiple exist, and provision the necessary IAM role and S3 bucket.
“Is security agent configured?”
The agent will inspect the local .security-agent/config.json and verify the status of the associated AWS resources.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/aws/setup-security-agent/download
  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip setup-security-agent.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by AWS

AWS Security Agent — Setup

This skill handles ONE thing: making sure the workspace has a working agent space, IAM service role, and S3 bucket linked together. Scans and pentests live in separate skills and assume this is done.


Local state convention

All Security Agent skills share workspace-local state at .security-agent/:

  • config.json — { "agent_space_id": "as-...", "region": "us-east-1", "code_reviews": { "<abs_path>": "cr-..." } }. Account ID, role ARN, and bucket name are derived by convention. The code_reviews map lets scans reuse the same CodeReview for a workspace.

  • scans.json — array of { scan_id, code_review_id, job_id, agent_space_id, scan_type, title, started_at, status, path } (keep last 50)

  • pentests.json — same shape, for pentest jobs

  • .gitignore — contents * so this directory stays untracked

  • findings-{scan_id}.md — written by the scan skill after each scan completes

This skill's job is to populate config.json and create .gitignore.

Derived values (convention over config)

Other skills compute these on each invocation rather than reading them from config.json:

ValueConvention
ACCOUNTaws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text
REGIONconfig.region (default us-east-1)
service_role_arnarn:aws:iam::${ACCOUNT}:role/SecurityAgentScanRole
s3_bucketsecurity-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}

Why minimal config: the role name and bucket name are deterministic, so storing them adds drift risk (a user re-creating a role manually would silently use a stale path). Only agent_space_id is stored because users may have multiple agent spaces and we don't want to ask which one every session.


Workflow

  1. Check existing state: read .security-agent/config.json if it exists.

  2. Caller identity + region:

    export ACCOUNT=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text)
    export REGION="${AWS_REGION:-us-east-1}"
  3. Agent space:

    • If config.agent_space_id is set, verify with:

      aws securityagent batch-get-agent-spaces --agent-space-ids <id>

      If the response shows it doesn't exist, treat as missing.

    • If missing, list existing:

      aws securityagent list-agent-spaces
      • If any exist → show them to the user with name + id and ask: "Would you like to reuse one of these, or should I create a new one?" Wait for the answer. Do not auto-select.

      • If user picks one, use that agentSpaceId.

      • If user wants new, or none exist:

        aws securityagent create-agent-space --name security-scans

        Capture returned agentSpaceId.

  4. Service role (SecurityAgentScanRole, ARN arn:aws:iam::$ACCOUNT:role/SecurityAgentScanRole):

    • Probe:

      aws iam get-role --role-name SecurityAgentScanRole
    • If NoSuchEntity is returned, create the role. Idempotency note: create-role will fail with EntityAlreadyExists if the role already exists. If that happens, fall through to update-assume-role-policy to ensure the trust policy is correct.

      # Trust policy — includes aws:SourceAccount confused-deputy guard
      cat > /tmp/sa-trust.json <<EOF
      {"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Allow","Principal":{"Service":"securityagent.amazonaws.com"},"Action":"sts:AssumeRole","Condition":{"StringEquals":{"aws:SourceAccount":"${ACCOUNT}"}}}]}
      EOF
      # Permissions policy (S3 + CloudWatch Logs)
      cat > /tmp/sa-perms.json <<EOF
      {"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[
        {"Effect":"Allow","Action":["s3:GetObject","s3:GetObjectVersion","s3:ListBucket"],"Resource":["arn:aws:s3:::security-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}","arn:aws:s3:::security-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}/*"]},
        {"Effect":"Allow","Action":["logs:CreateLogGroup","logs:CreateLogStream","logs:PutLogEvents"],"Resource":"arn:aws:logs:*:${ACCOUNT}:log-group:/aws/securityagent/*"}
      ]}
      EOF
      
      aws iam create-role --role-name SecurityAgentScanRole --assume-role-policy-document file:///tmp/sa-trust.json
      # if EntityAlreadyExists:
      aws iam update-assume-role-policy --role-name SecurityAgentScanRole --policy-document file:///tmp/sa-trust.json
      # always (re)apply permissions:
      aws iam put-role-policy --role-name SecurityAgentScanRole --policy-name SecurityAgentCodeReviewAccess --policy-document file:///tmp/sa-perms.json
  5. S3 bucket (security-agent-scans-$ACCOUNT-$REGION):

    Bucket-ownership enforcement (required). The bucket name is derived from the caller's AWS account ID and region — both non-secret and publicly derivable from ARNs / ECR URIs — so any third party can pre-register ("squat") the predictable name in their own account. Every S3 call MUST pass --expected-bucket-owner "$ACCOUNT" so the operation fails closed if the bucket is owned by someone else. A 403 Forbidden on a bucket that exists but is foreign-owned is fatal — abort setup and never upload.

    • Probe (asserts ownership):

      BUCKET="security-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}"
      NEED_CREATE=0
      if aws s3api head-bucket --bucket "$BUCKET" --expected-bucket-owner "$ACCOUNT" 2>/tmp/sa-head.err; then
        : # bucket exists and is owned by this account — safe to reuse
      elif grep -q '404' /tmp/sa-head.err; then
        NEED_CREATE=1
      elif grep -Eq '403|Forbidden' /tmp/sa-head.err; then
        echo "FATAL: bucket $BUCKET exists but is owned by another account (403). Possible bucket-squatting — aborting. Nothing was uploaded." >&2
        exit 1
      else
        cat /tmp/sa-head.err >&2; exit 1
      fi
    • If not found, create it. A BucketAlreadyExists error means another account already holds the global name — treat it as fatal and distinct from BucketAlreadyOwnedByYou (which is a safe no-op). Re-assert ownership after creation before any further use:

      if [ "$NEED_CREATE" = "1" ]; then
        if [ "$REGION" = "us-east-1" ]; then
          # us-east-1: no LocationConstraint
          aws s3api create-bucket --bucket "$BUCKET" 2>/tmp/sa-create.err || true
        else
          # other regions:
          aws s3api create-bucket --bucket "$BUCKET" \
            --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint="$REGION" 2>/tmp/sa-create.err || true
        fi
        if grep -q 'BucketAlreadyExists' /tmp/sa-create.err; then
          echo "FATAL: bucket name $BUCKET is already owned by another account (BucketAlreadyExists). Possible bucket-squatting — aborting." >&2
          exit 1
        elif [ -s /tmp/sa-create.err ] && ! grep -q 'BucketAlreadyOwnedByYou' /tmp/sa-create.err; then
          cat /tmp/sa-create.err >&2; exit 1
        fi
        # Confirm ownership of the freshly created bucket before using it.
        aws s3api head-bucket --bucket "$BUCKET" --expected-bucket-owner "$ACCOUNT"
      fi
    • Always (re)apply public access block + 30-day lifecycle:

      aws s3api put-public-access-block --bucket "$BUCKET" \
        --public-access-block-configuration BlockPublicAcls=true,IgnorePublicAcls=true,BlockPublicPolicy=true,RestrictPublicBuckets=true
      
      cat > /tmp/sa-lifecycle.json <<'EOF'
      {"Rules":[{"ID":"AutoDeleteUploads","Status":"Enabled","Filter":{"Prefix":""},"Expiration":{"Days":30}}]}
      EOF
      aws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle-configuration --bucket "$BUCKET" --lifecycle-configuration file:///tmp/sa-lifecycle.json
  6. Register role + bucket on the agent space (idempotent):

    • Read existing resources:

      aws securityagent batch-get-agent-spaces --agent-space-ids <id>

      Look at agentSpaces[0].awsResources.iamRoles and awsResources.s3Buckets.

    • If the role ARN or the bucket name is missing from those lists, merge and update:

      aws securityagent update-agent-space --agent-space-id <id> --name <existing-name> \
        --aws-resources iamRoles=[<arn1>,<arn2>...],s3Buckets=[<bucket1>,<bucket2>...]
  7. Persist to .security-agent/config.json (minimal — account/role/bucket are derived):

    {
      "agent_space_id": "as-xxxxx",
      "region": "us-east-1"
    }
  8. Create gitignore if missing:

    mkdir -p .security-agent
    echo '*' > .security-agent/.gitignore
  9. Confirm to user: "Setup complete. You can run security scans or pentests now."


Rules

  • Never auto-select an agent space when multiple exist — always ask the user

  • Never disable safety protections (the public-access-block stays on)

  • Every S3 call against the derived bucket MUST pass --expected-bucket-owner "$ACCOUNT". The bucket name is derived from a non-secret account ID, so a third party can pre-register it; a 403/BucketAlreadyExists on a foreign-owned bucket is fatal — abort and never upload.

  • Trust policy must allow securityagent.amazonaws.com (production service principal) and include the aws:SourceAccount confused-deputy guard

  • If the user provides their own role name or bucket name (different from the conventional defaults), tell them: this plugin uses convention-based defaults (SecurityAgentScanRole / security-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}). Either accept those defaults or extend the skill — the other skills derive these names rather than reading them from config.

  • The scan and pentest skills can call this skill inline if config.json is missing — first-time users don't need to run setup separately.


Troubleshooting

  • AccessDenied calling iam:CreateRole → user lacks IAM permissions. Ask them to run setup with their own role ARN, or to grant iam:CreateRole + iam:PutRolePolicy.

  • AccessDenied on s3api create-bucket → either the bucket name is taken globally, or the user lacks s3:CreateBucket. Suggest using an existing bucket they own and pass it explicitly.

  • 403 Forbidden / BucketAlreadyExists on the derived bucket → the predictable name is owned by a different account (bucket-squatting). This is fatal by design — do not upload. Have the user pick a bucket name they own (or run from the expected account/region) and re-run setup.

  • Role exists but trust policy is wrong → update-assume-role-policy (step 4 fallback). If they don't want that role updated, ask them for a different role ARN.

  • Agent space exists but in a different region → tell the user; suggest using the right region or creating a new space in the current region.

Files

Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Needs a command-line tool

Security

No issues found by our static scan· No issues found

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Attribution and licence

Published by
AWS
Publisher
AWS (Official)
Source
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws · plugins/aws-agents-for-devsecops/skills/setup-security-agent · commit 0a218f8
Licence
Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
  • NOTICE (added by AutoGineer from NOTICE)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
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Download ZIP

The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download setup-security-agent.zip